Hidden Settings

There are some settings you can only adjust by editing a text file called Rebuilder.ini with a text editor like Notepad. These are referred to as Hidden Settings because they're not visible in the GUI. All the settings mentioned here will need to go after the [Options] line and before [CCEOptions]. The settings relevant to CCE Basic are for setting the size of the finished project and the minimum/maximum bitrate. I've included examples of my settings where applicable. The graphic on the right shows my own INI file with the one tweak I use. For the other two settings, xxxx needs to be replaced with the actual number you want to use.

CCETargetSectors=2260000

This sets the size of the DVD. The default size (without this line) is 2236400, which in my experience gives you a final size of about 4.32GB. When I first set this option, I used 2265000 instead of 2260000 and it worked fine, except that it eventually gave me a DVD that was 14MB too big for a blank. Since lowering it by 5000 I've never had this problem (most movies end up within 30MB of a full disk), although occasionally using RB-Opt to change bitrates after the Prepare Phase lowers the size marginally.

If you're using lower quality or questionable media it's best to leave this setting alone because it will help you avoid playback problems due to poor dye distribution on the outside edge of the disc. In any case, this setting is more for those of us who want the disc full on general principle since the default setting should fill about 99% of the disc already, and the extra 1% isn't likely to get you any noticeable increase in quality.

min_bitrate=xxxx

This sets the minimum bitrate setting in kbps (kilobits per second). By default, DVD Rebuilder sets this to 0, which actually means it's undefined in CCE. If you want to set a specific minimum, make sure it's set to something other than 0. I don't see any reason to use this setting, but it's there if you want to use it.

max_bitrate=xxxx

This sets the maximum bitrate for CCE to use when encoding. To be DVD compliant, a video stream can't have a bitrate higher than 9800kbps. Furthermore, the combined bitrate of the video and all audio streams associated with it can't exceed 10080kbps. For example, if your final DVD has both a 448kbps Dolby Digital stream and a 768kbps (no that's not a typo!) DTS stream, the maximum available bitrate is 10080 - (448 + 768) = 8864kbps. Since the default setting is 9000kbps, you can probably see where this option may be useful if you plan to include multiple audio tracks. If you're not including a DTS stream (or several Dolby Digital streams) in your project this setting can normally be ignored. In any case, it's best to leave a little room for error and keep it at least 200kbps or so lower than it absolutely has to be. In my example I'd probably want it set to 8500 just to be safe.

Generally, when you have a lot of audio streams, or even just a couple with high bitrates, you won't have space on the disc for particularly high peak bitrates anyway, so you're not really losing anything by setting this lower, but you may avoid a single bitrate spike that could cause playback issues.